Forearm/hand-guard assemblies for firearms (especially rifles) are well known that include a tubular member adapted to extend around a barrel of the firearm and include means, such as one or more Picatinny or Weaver style rails that are adapted for engagement by one or more attachments (e.g., open sights, red dot sights, scopes, lasers, or lights) to secure those attachments along the outer surface of the tubular member. Known firearm forearm/hand-guard assemblies of this type are attached to the firearms in fixed relationship to their barrels. This can present difficulties for a user of the firearm when, for example, the user wishes to switch between the use of a scope sight and an open sight, which sights are fixed on adjacent sides of the forearm/hand-guard assembly for the firearm. Switching use of those sights may require holding the firearm in an inconvenient position to afford use of the one of those sights that is not above the normal top of the barrel.
Also, the use of such a forearm/hand-guard assembly fixed with respect to a rifles barrel can present an additional problem when used on a rifle of the type commercially designated “SUB-2000” that is commercially available from Kel-Tec CNC Industries, Cocoa, Fla. 32923. That rifle has a barrel mounted on its receiver for pivotal movement between a use portion in which the barrel projects away from a receiver for the rifle in the normal orientation so that the rifle can be used to fire cartridges, and a storage position in which the barrel is pivoted about 180 degrees around its juncture with the receiver of the rifle so that the barrel lies along the top of the receiver and a stock for the rifle and the rifle can then be conveniently stored in a small storage case. An attachment such as a scope attached along the normal top of such a forearm/hand-guard assembly fixed to the barrel on such a rifle can prevent that barrel from moving fully to its storage position (i.e., the top of the scope touches the top of the stock before that storage position is reached), thereby requiring removal of the scope or a larger case to store the rifle.